MANILA: Philippine food and drink group San Miguel Corp. is interested in buying PT Indofoods Sukses Makmur if Indonesia's largest instant noodle and cooking oil producer is up for sale.

"PT Indofoods, if offered for sale by the Salim family, would be a good acquisition for the core food business of the company," San Miguel told the stock exchange Tuesday.

"Should there be such an intention by the Salim family, the management of the company has good, direct, personal and business relationship with the Salim family to pursue the offer, without the need for any broker," it said.

San Miguel issued the statement in response to a Philippine Daily Inquirer news report Monday, citing unnamed sources, that Antonio Cojuangco, chairman of Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co., is lobbying for the sale of a 48 percent Indofood stake held by Hong Kong's First Pacific Co. instead of its 24 percent PLDT stake.

First Pacific is majority owned by the Salim family. -- Dow Jones.

Fitch gives Mandiri debt a B minus

JAKARTA: Fitch Ratings, the international rating agency, said Tuesday it had assigned an expected long-term foreign currency rating of 'B-' (B minus) to Bank Mandiri's proposed subordinated debt issue.

This rating is the same as Fitch's Long-term Foreign Currency senior debt rating assigned to Mandiri. The two ratings are the same because in Fitch's rating methodology the subordinated debt rating is notched one below the senior debt rating applied to local currency issues. The foreign currency sovereign ceiling, if relevant, is then applied as a cap.

Fitch takes the view that Bank Mandiri is of such importance to Indonesia's financial system that the government would try to ensure that the bank continued to operate even during a crisis that may result in a default (in practice a rescheduling) of the government's own local currency debt.

Hence, despite remaining weaknesses in its financial condition, the bank's Local Currency senior debt rating is 'B' one notch above Indonesia's 'B-' sovereign Local Currency rating.

The bank's Long-term Foreign Currency of 'B-' (B minus) is capped at the sovereign ceiling and is in practice the same as its subordinated debt rating.

NTT DoCoMo sets up firm in Europe

TOKYO: Japanese telecoms giant NTT DoCoMo Inc. said Tuesday it would set up a new firm in Amsterdam this month to expand its popular Internet-capable mobile phone service i-mode in Europe.

DoCoMo i-mode Europe B.V., a wholly owned subsidiary of the Japanese firm, is aimed at expanding the i-mode service in Europe.

The Japanese firm has already licensed KPN Mobile N.V. in the Netherlands, E-Plus Mobilfunk GmbH and Co. in Germany, and Bouygues Telecom S.A. in France to market the technology.

The i-mode service, which enable users to email, surf the web and watch video images, has attracted more than 32 million subscribers since its debut in Japan in February 1999. -- AFP

Sharp to invest $854.7m for LCD TVs

TOKYO: Japanese consumer electronics giant Sharp Corp. said Tuesday it will invest US$854.7 million to start mass production of large liquid crystal display televisions.

"We will invest 100 billion yen ($854.7 million) at our new plant to boost our production of large LDC television sets," a Sharp spokesman said.

The plant will have the monthly production capacity of 100,000 LCD televisions and will start operating in two years, he said.

It will specialize in manufacturing LCD televisions with screens larger than 25 inches (63.5 centimeters), he said.

The factory, to be built in Mie prefecture in western Japan, will have at least 700 workers, the spokesman said. -- AFP

Sumitomo might sell U.S. unit

TOKYO: Japanese steelmaker Sumitomo Metal Industries Ltd. said Tuesday it might sell its stake in an electro-galvanizing joint venture in the United States.

The company was "considering various options" about the future of L-S Electro-Galvanizing Co., in which Sumitomo holds a 40 percent stake, said a Sumitomo spokesman.

"One of the options is to sell it. But I must say we have not reached any concrete conclusion and cannot comment further," he said.

LSE was established in 1985 with Sumitomo's U.S. partner LTV Corp. in a move by Sumitomo to expand its U.S. operations, the spokesman said.

The comment followed a news report that said Sumitomo was considering selling LSE as early as this month and pulling out of production of sheet steel in the United States.

Sumitomo Metal was planning to sell its LSE stake to AK Steel Corp, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun economic daily said. -- AFP

Philips reports quarterly losses

AMSTERDAM: Philips, the Dutch electronics group, said on Tuesday that its business had recovered from losses last year but it had been forced to report a quarterly loss by the fall of its 3.5 percent holding in Vivendi Universal.

The group had taken an exceptional charge or provision for the fall in the book value of Vivendi stock, hit by a cash crisis at Vivendi Universal, and this had put it into loss of 1.355 billion euros (dollars) in the second quarter from an equivalent loss last year of 770 million euros.

The group said it had made an exceptional provision of 1.516 billion euros on account of Vivendi Universal, a global media and utilities group based in France, of which Philips owns 3.5 percent at a book cost of 2.353 billion euros.

Without this charge, and provisions for exposure to companies called Great Nordic and SHL, Philips would have made a second- quarter profit of 171 million euros, far more than had been expected by analysts who had forecast a net profit before exceptional charges of 32-109 million euros. -- AFP